OK, So Let Me Get This Right

The new chant now is, "Use your brain, vote McCain."

That's catchy.

The thought is that if you were smart, you'd look at the kind of spending McCain advocates and that which Barry is behind.

This seems to make sense.

The real rallying point is how Barry wants to stick it to a few people on the top of the food chain and "redistribute" their wealth.

Ignoring the hard fact that taxes are basically redistribution devices in and of themselves, I can see why you would be against this if you were either very rich, had a heightened sense of economic morality or both.

Barack the sissy was against the Iraq war from the beginning. Now, he was not holding elected office at the time, but there's at least a clear public record of his stance.

Rambo, on the other hand, was all for it.

To date, this war has cost us about $600B and is not exactly slowing down anytime soon.

Please don't tell me about fiscal responsibility unless you were against this war to begin with or can demostrate to me how remaining there is in some way cost-effective.

It's really trashy to pretend that you give a shit about spending, John. You remind me of someone who has an overflowing toilet that's left feet of sewage flooding the house, but instead of taking care of that problem, you insist on dusting the earmarks off the window sills to prove your cleanliness.

Oh, Will You Shut Up About the Damned Surge!

If a surgeon lopped off my arm during a surgery to repair a chipped bone in my pinkie finger, then was able to replace said arm with a Captain Hook stump three years later, should we give the doctor a parade or an Atomic Wedgie for messing me up in the first place?

It's beyond me why John McCain keeps running around talking about his support for the surge as if a) He actually has some operational authority over troop strategy in Iraq b) The idea really is evidence of a keen military mind and not just someone who legitimately got past the techniques taught in the first chapter of Playground Fights for Dummies.

He's at it again today, saying how his judgment is so great and Barry's is so poor based on their support for the surge. The problem, of course, is that if McCain is so keen on looking at historical wartime decisions, it makes perfect sense to look back at who got us into this mess to begin with!

Who displayed good judgment then, Mr. Man?

Who had a good read on our place in the world then, Senator?

Did "Al Queda in Iraq" even exist then?

God, I feel like Keith Olbermann, now.

Mitt Romney Is Going to Mess Up His Pretty Hair

If he gets his nose buried any further up John McCain's ass, that is.

Yesterday, he credited the brilliant war strategist with being the person who"authored some time ago the philosophy that said a surge would work in Iraq."

"Authored the philosophy" that bringing in a whole boatload of people (who arguably should have been elsewhere doing things of more moral and strategic value) is one way to overwhelm an enemy?

I mean, that might very well be true, but it's a concept that can be grasped by any second grader.

Romney's argument also implies that McCain had a much more hands-on role than he probably did in planning the current tactics in Iraq.

Sometimes, I Wish The Iraqis Would All Go to Hell

I must just be exceptionally grumpy this afternoon for some reason...but I'm putzing around the kitchen and listening to how an American commander in Iraq had to go and beg forgiveness from the mafioso kingpins over in Iraq.

And it ticked me off.

It all stemmed from some sniper who was doing practice over there on the almighty Koran.

Someone spotted it and was outraged and the mea culpas started rolling in. We apparently offended the sensibilities of certain Iraqis...the people who think it's alright to blow up marketplaces and soldiers at the drop of a turban, but when a fart is blown in the presence of their stupid holy book, they all of a sudden become as righteous as another individual who favored sandals.

(Parenthetically, this incident shows you what buttheads the people in this country are who want to make flag burning a federal crime.)

Anyway, while this incident is ultimately Bush's fault for bringing us all over there, I'm still waiting for these f**ing chieftans to start apologizing and paying us back for the lives and money we're continuing to piss into the Euphrates every day.

A Day for Thanks

No Matter What Your Overall Opinion on Barack Is

...it's hard to argue that his much-ballyhooed speech against the war in 2002 is not a sensible one, both in terms of his read of the past and his guess on what would happen in the future.

I'd heard so much talk about it from both sides and then realized that I'd never actually read the damned thing, so I found a text of it.

It's actually quite short, so give it a read if you have a moment.

Matt Taibbi Calls the Dems to Task

Over the last year or so, I've really started to enjoy Matt Taibbi's writing in Rolling Stone. Over the summer, I read a book he wrote about the 2004 campaign and he seems to be the closest thing to a HST fix I'll get this season.

Anyway, this week, he calls Congressional Democrats out on their cynical behavior since the 2006 election.

Anyone who even remotely paid attention to that campaign knows that the Democrats had a strategy (orchestrated primarily by now-Madame Speaker and former Clintonista, Rahm Emanuel) to promise some progress on getting out of Iraq. That's not debatable and at the time they were making the claims, they had access to enough intelligence to know that it was either not feasible or wise.

So they haven't done shit for all you saps who voted for them. Rather, they're now talking about how they have to wait until after the next election, when perhaps a more reasonable President is in office.

That's basically the article in a nutshell and I could not agree more. But I'd actually take the argument a bit further.

While Hillary and Barack have rightly noted that presumable GOP nominee McCain has stated that we could have some presence in Iraq for 100 years (not unlike our continuing presence in, say, West Germany or South Korea), at least the old coot is being honest with you.

Say what you will about the so-called warmongers on the right. They'll tell you that they intend to blow the balls off of any towelhead that gets in their way and, darnit, they go out and try do it no matter what.

A good portion of the national Democrats, though, have co-opted the anti-war position because it's politically expedient and gives them more window dressing with which to attack the GOP when they have no intent on spending any of their political capital to make good on their promises.

It's at least debatable which position is worse.

Billary

Hillary has learned her lessons well. She slipped in a nice little nuance in her answer to Russert's question about getting out of Iraq early on in the beginning of another Clinton presidency.

"...I will end our involvement at the levels we've seen."

This leaves quite a bit of wiggle room.

The Moveon Ad

Well, my Cubs hat is tipped to Moveon.org.

They've accomplished what they wanted in their on-the-cheap ad in the Times last week, playing on the name of General Petraus.

They have inspired the US Senate to perform one of its best circle jerks in some time.

This, of course, is like Michael Jordon out-doing himself in the dunking realm...or Andy Dick doing something really creepy, even for him.

Here's what happened:

John Cornyn (R-TX) brought up a bill condemning the ad that The Decider called "disgusting."

Since they were apparently now in the business of offering unsolicited commentary on private sector advertising, Barbie Box-uh (D-CA) decided to throw on an amendment saying that they were also pissed at how John Kerry was swiftboated and Max Cleland's devotion to this country was pushed into ambiguity.

The Texan accused Boxer of changing the subject, to which she said, 'I know you are, but what am I?'

The Boxer amendment failed, but the larger bill passed.

Shrub in the Headlights

So a friend and former co-worker in Sacramento suckered me into helping them vote for her kids' school to be the high school game of the week on the local TV station out there.

I felt kind of stupid taking part in this charade.

Then I looked up at my own television just in time to hear the Jackass tell me that if we don't have a "free" Iraq, I can count on another 9-11 happening.

For the life of me, I never thought I'd see such a load of bullcrap on television.

"It's never too late to deal a blow to Al Qeada."

Ms. Dowd Gets it Right...Again

A bit tied up with some work things going on, but luckily I was able to get a morning cup of Dowd today and her take on the Iraq testimony this week.

A girdle can be a nice thing...it produces something momentarily more attractive than reality, but you can't wear it forever...gravity eventually wins.


September 12, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
Peaches Tightens the Girdle
By MAUREEN DOWD
WASHINGTON

Joe Biden didn’t talk that much yesterday for Joe Biden.

And he told Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker that they shouldn’t talk too much, either, so that members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee would have time to get in their questions. Even though the senators often didn’t ask questions but simply gave little partisan lectures or told stories about themselves, or in the case of Barbara Boxer, had an aide hold up a blow-up picture of herself with General Petraeus in Iraq.

Nevertheless, Mr. Biden, the committee’s chairman, took time at the end of yesterday’s first hearing with the Surge Twins to make the points, a bit repetitively, that there is no plan to get out of Iraq and that the Bush administration is not leveling with Americans.

John McCain was standing behind Mr. Biden, waiting to sit down for the next hearing — the Armed Services Committee — with the witnesses.

First, the Republican presidential candidate smiled archly at having to cool his heels as the Democratic presidential candidate yakked — sniffing at the Surge that Mr. McCain supports. Then Mr. McCain turned to his G.O.P. colleague Susan Collins and flapped his fingers in the universal hand sign for yakking.

It pretty much said it all.

For months, everyone here has been waiting with great expectations to hear whether the Surge is working from the top commander and top diplomat in Iraq.

But the whole thing was sort of a fizzle. It’s obvious that the Surge is like those girdles the secretaries wear on the vintage advertising show, “Mad Men.” It just pushes the fat around, giving a momentary illusion of flatness. But once Peaches Petraeus, as he was known growing up in Cornwall-on-Hudson, takes the girdle off, the center will not hold.

And it was clear from their marathon testimony that the Iraqi politicians are useless, that we’re going to have a huge number of troops in Iraq for a long time, that there’s no post-Surge strategy, that they’re just playing for time, hoping that somehow, some way, things will look up in the desert maze of demons that General Petraeus referred to as “home.”

The strategy is no more than a soap bubble of hope, just as W.’s invasion of Iraq was based on a fantasy about W.M.D.’s and an illusory view of Iraq.

Even though it was 9/11, Osama was barely mentioned all day.

Republican Senator John Warner, freer than ever now that he’s announced his retirement, turned the screw on the two witnesses.

Do you feel, he asked the general, that the Surge “is making America safer?”

“Sir, I don’t know actually,” Peaches replied. “I have not sat down and sorted out in my own mind.”

The Surge Twins seemed competent and more realistic than some of their misbegotten predecessors, but just too late to do any good. They’re like two veteran pilots trying to crash land the plane.

Ambassador Crocker has expressed a darker, more rueful vision in background briefings with reporters, and he emanated a bit of Graham Greene yesterday.

He noted that the Iraqis know that “they’re going to be there forever,” while we will not.

Pulling troops out too soon, he fears, could “push the Iraqis in the wrong direction. It would make them, I would fear, more focused on, you know, building the walls, stocking the ammunition and getting ready for a big, nasty street fight without us around.”

Asked by Senator McCain if he was confident that the Maliki government will get the job done, the ambassador said dryly: “My level of confidence is under control.”

The star witnesses gave shell game answers, trying to make the best of a hideous hand.

“It’s a hand that’s unlikely to improve in my view,” Hillary Clinton — one of five senators running for president on the two panels — told the Surge Twins. “I think that the reports that you provide to us really require the willing suspension of disbelief.”

Hillary’s plan is to posture and criticize W.’s war all the way to the White House. But then President Clinton will be stuck with figuring out how to pull out the more than 100,000 troops still there policing a lot of crazy sectarian street fighting.

The Republicans seemed happy that the witnesses’ calm presentation bolstered the president’s case for continued war funding. In his speech tomorrow night, W. will be able to accept the recommendations of the Surge Twins, who are only recommending what he wants to hear.

Republicans seemed oblivious to the fact that they may have scored points short term while laying the groundwork for disaster long term. W. won’t care because he’s not running, but it will be political suicide for Republicans entering the campaign with 130,000 troops still in Iraq.

As Lindsey Graham joked to the witnesses about Congress, referring to the talk of the dysfunctional Iraqi government, “You could say we’re dysfunctional and you wouldn’t be wrong.”

I'll Have What Bush is Smoking

From CNN:

"The security situation is changing," Bush told reporters during the visit. "There's more work to be done. But reconciliation is taking place."

...

"We're kicking ass," Bush said to Vaile Tuesday, according the Herald, after the deputy prime minister inquired about his trip to Iraq.

Harry Reid to Make the Senate Stay Up Late

In yet another installment of my annoying "setting the news to music"  habit...

Harry "The Stormin' Mormon" Reid has had it up to here with GOP dilly-dallying on the war, so he's threatening to send the Senate to the mattresses and force and all-night session to get an up or down vote on troop withdrawl.

In recent history, these sorts of threats by both sides have been squelched before we got to a Mr. Smith Goes to Washington scenario, but this is by far the most important issue this government has faced in the last 30 years.

Here's some Talking Heads comin' atchya...Stay up Late, kiddies...

Meet the Press Smackdown!

Russert usually has tighter control over his panelists, but thankfully, yesterday morning, he let men be men and duke this one out.

I watched it on the television and had been waiting for someone to cut it to Youtube.

Basically, Sens. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) and James Webb (D-VA) wrapped up their appearance together talking about what the future holds for Iraq.

Tempers boiled over when Graham used re-enlistement rates as a proxy for military support for the action and justification for continuing  the surge.  "Let them win!" became his mantra.  This set fellow military veteran Webb over the edge (and rightfully so, in this civilian's opinion).

Gregg and Alexander Join the "Coalition of the Willing (to admit we totally screwed the pooch)"

Their statements are still somewhat tempered and not going as far as DailyKos would like them to, but two more usually-reliable Senators are finally coming around.  Judd Gregg of New Hampshire and (former Presidential hopeful) Lamar Alexander
of Tennessee put a line in the sand yesterday on the "surge" in Iraq.

Another GOP Defection in From the Insane Clown Posse

The comparison between the Bush Administration and the Insane Clown Posse seemed apt this morning.

Yesterday, another of the 'wise' old men of the Senate, Peter Domenici (R-NM) defected from the blind followers. He's had enough of this business of waiting until September for a progress report on the surge. While not going all the way, as Harry Reid et al would prefer, and endorsing yanking the rug out, this announcement cannot be blown off.

He joins recent converts Richard Lugar and John Warner (who, like Domenici, is up for re-election next year).

The senior Senator from New Mexico didn't just fall off the chili truck, either. He's a shrewd political operator. You have to be to hang around that long. His name is one of the more prominent ones thrown around in the Attorney General firings "scandal."

Bush (the birthday boy!) is running out of cards up his sleeve on this war.

Up or Down Vote

One of the problems that congresspeople always complain about is that so-called up-or-down votes are not often allowed. Too often they have to vote on larger funding bills that water down the ability of the representative to clearly show where they stand on the issue.

Today, before the current Obey (D-WI) funding bill vote, members will get a chance to make a statement and vote on an effectively-immediate pullout measure proposed by Jim McGovern (D-MA).

Good for them. I'm all for them being able to vote on what they really want to do before moving on to what's possible. While it won't result in any action, it will allow members to distinguish themselves from one another.

Are We Keeping Them There Longer to Handle The Last Pockets of Dead-Enders?

The Pentagon is increaing tours of duty to 15 months now.

Rummy and his buddies should rot in prison or someplace warmer for this.